Friday, 25 November 2011

Tōto asakusa honganji [Hongan-ji Temple at Asakusa in the Eastern Capital: print shows the peak of the roof of the Hongan-ji Temple at Asakusa with a kite flying through the clouds and a view of Mount Fuji in the distance]: Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849), between 1890 and 1940: from the series: Fugaku sanjūrokkei: 36 views of Mount Fuji (Japanese prints and drawings, Library of Congress)

No more apologies for existing. No more demands to change your behavior.I’m incorrigible, you’re a hopeless case.The sun shines on both of us anyway.

*

No one sick with loathing towards me.No one miserably in love with me. Friendly towards all, friends with none. Head in the clouds, feet on the ground.

Yui no zu [View of Yui:print shows a man carrying a large box on his back on a cloud in a mountainous area, looking back at travelers standing on a cliff above the sea with sailboats and Mount Fuji in the background]: Tyokuni Utagawa (1786-1865), between 1837 and 1844, from the series: Tōkaidō gojū santsugi no uchi: 53 stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Donald D. Walker collection /Japanese prints and drawings, Library of Congress)

This sounds like advice I try to give myself when I'm at my most gathered and "together," which is rarely. vazambam says "down to earth". I feel "feet on the ground", planted lighly, almost floating. (Not like me; I'm known for my heavy footfall.) I love the way the sentences sound and how they meet the images. This one really fits the afternoon, which is now verging into evening. It's 6 o'clock in the east -- pitch-black outside. Curtis

Thank you for this. Its a privilege to read this.I shall take it up as a morning prayer of sorts. It makes much more sense than those much idealize ones which bid us to love all. Loving everybody is not even possible I guess!

Beautiful pcitures. And 'feet on the ground' makes a whole lot of sense. The kite image so resonating. I am going to look for Coyote Journal for now.